Boys basketball: Hornets roll into regional

PELLSTON — Once-beaten Pellston has been ranked in the top 10 all season.

The Hornets played like one of the top Class D teams in the state throughout the district tournament on its home floor.

Christopher Hass scored 20 points to lead four Hornets in double figures Friday as Pellston rolled past Harbor Light Christian, 73-21, to claim its second consecutive district championship.

The Hornets, 21-1 and ranked second in the Associated Press state poll, will take on Rogers City, 9-12, in a regional semifinal 6 p.m. today, Monday, at Gaylord High School. Pellston opened the district with a 62-16 win over Mackinaw City.

Despite the lopsided outcomes — to this point — in its state tournament games, Pellston is taking nothing for granted this week as it seeks its first regional championship since 1944.

“You can’t look at (an opponent’s) record,” said coach Cliff Hass, who saw his team fall in a regional semifinal to Cedarville last season. “I tell my players, ‘Let’s look at the NFL playoffs the last three years. The team that has won the Super Bowl has been a wild-card team.’

“Nobody reaches a regional by luck. They’re playing well. It’s the team that’s playing the best at the time.”

Rogers City started 0-6 this season and was 3-11 at one point. The Hurons are the lone Class D school in the six-school Straits Area Conference, and they went 5-3 this season against Class D opponents.

Two of those losses came to a 19-3 Posen team that is in the other half of the regional bracket, paired up against Cedarville, 18-4, in a Monday semifinal.

Rogers City defeated Gaylord St. Mary, 62-47, on Friday to win its fourth straight district championship.

“You’ve got to take care of business here and you can’t look past (Rogers City),” coach Hass said. “We’re focusing on Rogers City. They’re not intimidated by us and they’re not going to back off. We know we’re going to have a worthy opponent.”